South Africa's Electricity Sector Reform: Experience from emerging economies

Join us for a webinar presented by the Global Subsidies Initiative looking at electricity sector reform in South Africa, and how Eskom can adapt this reform to the post-pandemic economy by prioritizing social and environmental impacts. The webinar take place on Wednesday, June 10 at 14:00 SAST / 12:00 GMT.

South Africa’s electricity sector has been under considerable strain during the last decade. In the 90 years since its inception the entity has remained vertically integrated, with little or no structural change. The current structure is ill-suited to meet the country’s energy needs and has been susceptible to corruption and state capture. As a response to this, in October 2019, Eskom published a roadmap to inform electricity sector reform in South Africa. Although reform is long overdue, similar electricity sector reforms in emerging markets highlight the need to adapt the standard model of reform to meet individual country needs. The aftermath of COVID-19 further emphasises the need for Eskom to adapt its reform agenda to the post-pandemic economy by prioritizing social and environmental impacts, creating good jobs without damaging public health or the environment.

As part of the webinar, we will launch the IISD paper Rethinking Eskom: Lessons from electricity sector reform in India and Mexico. The paper analyzes electricity sector reform in India and Mexico, two emerging countries with characteristics comparable to South Africa. The paper assesses the impacts of electricity sector reform on electricity sector ownership, decarbonization, jobs and electricity prices, focusing on lessons for Eskom’s reform.